Properties of Urbic Anthrosols from an abandoned shunting yard in the Ruhr area, Germany

The soil conditions of an abandoned shunting yard in the Ruhr area were studied to find the most important factors influencing plant growth and nutrient cycling. The chemical and physical conditions of five Urbic Anthrosols with different development histories were compared with those of a nearby Calcic Cambisol under agricultural use. In the second half of the 19th century, the ground level of the shunting yard site was raised about 2 m. The soils are now mainly Regosols, mostly well drained in the topsoil. The coarse material contents (>2 mm), which are up to 100% in base layers of railway tracks, and the quality of the man-made substrates (crushed rock, slags, ashes, coke) are the most important factors influencing plant growth. Poor physical structure and low contents of fine fraction (<2 mm) lead to low water storage. Together with a low available nutrient stock, these properties lead to poor establishment of vegetation. The burning of coal by steam engines produced highly polluted ashes that fill pore spaces in the railway ballast layers. All the investigated fine substrata of the shunting yard layers exhibit a higher magnetic susceptibility than the rural soil. The ashes still contain unburned coal so that, although the total organic C content of the man-made soils reaches 37%, the wide C:N ratio does not indicate the actual quality of humic substances. The acid neutralization potential of the topsoil layers of the shunting yard will be consumed by acidic atmospheric deposition within a few decades, whereas in the surrounding Calcic Cambisols, it will take more than a thousand years. This may cause further problems of groundwater quality, as the heavy metals will become more soluble. The low soil quality makes such sites suitable for vegetation species that cannot compete in the surrounding very eutrophic agricultural landscape.